Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer told Newsmax that President Donald Trump needs to put more pressure on Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy to end their conflict.
Shaffer told “The Chris Salcedo Show” on Thursday that the continued posturing of both sides is just dragging things out. “So it’s really going to come down to President Trump putting pressure on both men to show up and end the war,” Shaffer said.
He acknowledged there was another call Thursday with Trump and Zelenskyy, and Trump said afterward that he’s unhappy with Putin not doing more to end the fighting. “So both sides are unhappy with the other,” said Shaffer. “There’s no happiness in the equation.”
He said at this point, “I think that’s to be expected. Putin said today also that he’s willing to have Zelenskyy visit Moscow, which I don’t think is in the cards, but he put it out there,” he said.
Shaffer indicated there appears to be little interest between Putin and Zelenskyy to resolve the issue. “Neither man is going to comply,” Shaffer said.
He said Trump has been working to apply pressure, but it does not seem to be moving the needle very much. “President Trump is using very subtle but direct economic pressure via India on Russia,” he noted. But Shaffer said the impact so far has been negligible.
That took Shaffer back to the overriding issue of Trump needing to make life harder for Putin and Zelenskyy. “It’s going to take President Trump personally to get involved,” he said.
Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday, “I have no message to President Putin. He knows where I stand, and he’ll make a decision one way or another.” Trump figures things will happen quickly once he knows Putin’s plans. “Whatever his decision is, we’ll either be happy about it or unhappy about it, and if we’re unhappy about it, you’ll see things happen,” the president said.
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